


Duty

by Dimity Blue (Arnie)



Category: Person of Interest (TV)
Genre: Episode Tag, Episode: s03e16 RAM, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-28
Updated: 2017-11-28
Packaged: 2019-02-08 03:11:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 694
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12855477
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Arnie/pseuds/Dimity%20Blue
Summary: Harold's thoughts during the flashback episode RAM.





	Duty

Harold has been aware for some time that Mr. Dillinger is less than satisfactory. The ex-special ops man is brash, over-confident and lacks any sort of subtlety. It doesn't improve Harold's opinion of him that Mr. Dillinger is using his work as a way to pick up vulnerable, recently traumatised women who are easily manipulated into having sex with him.

Also, while Mr. Dillinger's more than capable of dealing with the amateur or low level criminals who make up the majority of their work, Harold has distinct concerns about what would happen should he have to go up against organised crime or any government agents.

It seems that their latest case involving Daniel Casey may prove Harold is right to be concerned.

John Reese is not unknown to Harold, although he's never met the man. When The Machine gave Harold Jessica Arndt's number, Harold had identified Jessica's ex-boyfriend as the CIA agent he was now looking at. Mr. Reese wasn't a threat to Mrs. Arndt. No, the threat which had led The Machine to issue her number appeared to be her own husband. It was a situation which was, sadly, ongoing, although Harold hadn't received her number in a while.

In the meantime, Mr. Reese and his fellow agent might very well prove to be more than a match for Mr. Dillinger.

Harold's distrust of his own operative is drastically deepened when Mr. Dillinger chooses to bring Daniel Casey to the library. Harold is well aware of the danger he personally stands in. The government - or one of their many agencies - had Nathan killed and Harold is positive they won't hesitate to kill him too. It's entirely possible Mr. Dillinger has compromised not only the library but Harold himself. Mr. Dillinger's belief in his own abilities has already been misplaced once that day. All Harold can do is hope he was right when he said he hadn't been followed.

As it turns out, however, the current threat to Harold is his own employee.

Mr. Dillinger's betrayal is more of a shock than Harold would like to admit. He also feels he should have realised something was amiss when Mr. Dillinger went to the trouble of remembering the actual tea Harold drinks. Regardless, as soon as his head has cleared enough for him to realise he's lying on the floor and Mr. Dillinger and Mr. Casey are gone, Harold wastes no time in recriminations. His first duty is to Mr. Casey.

Fortunately for Harold, Mr. Casey took the clean phone Harold gave him, making it easy for Harold to track him. Even more fortunately, Mr. Reese has a lot more integrity than Harold realised. Mr. Casey is left alive and even provided with a safe route out of the city.

Harold sighs with relief and a heartfelt gratitude for Mr. Reese and sets off to track his own operative. While Mr. Dillinger cared nothing for Mr. Casey's life and probably cares little for Harold's, Harold feels obligated to protect Mr. Dillinger against himself. The laptop Mr. Dillinger is selling is more dangerous than he realises, especially since Harold has tweaked the lines of code it carries. Whoever receives the laptop will be disappointed in the limited knowledge contained within it.

Mr. Dillinger is easily found but Harold lacks the ability to dissuade him. Instead, Harold stays and watches, hoping Mr. Dillinger will be safe, but unable to leave until he knows for sure. In the end, all he can do is bury Mr. Dillinger in an unmarked grave. Perhaps if he had trusted more, Mr. Dillinger would have trusted him. But knowledge of The Machine is a death sentence. Harold has already had ample proof of that with Nathan and he can't bring himself to burden others. If he can't trust, at least he can protect, though he failed even that with Mr. Dillinger.

Harold adds it to the list of his failures and places his shovel back in the trunk of his car. The laptop is gone, Mr. Casey is safe, and Harold is back to working on his own. It's not a success but it will have to do. For now.

The end.


End file.
